The combination of GNU and Linux is the GNU/Linux operating system, now used by millions and sometimes incorrectly called simply “Linux”.

The name “GNU” is a recursive acronym for “GNU's Not Unix!”

Since Arch Linux is a GNU/Linux based distribution, many of its basic tools are from the GNU Project. This article will give a brief description of the core components, as well as some other useful applications.

Contents

The Base System

At the end of the installation process, an Arch system is nothing more than the Linux Kernel, the GNU toolchain, and a few other useful command line tools. The minimal install normally contains the entire base group.

Kernel

While Hurd, the GNU Kernel, is under active development, there is not yet a stable version. For this reason Arch and most other GNU based systems use the Linux Kernel. The Arch Hurd Project aims to port Arch Linux to the Hurd kernel.

Software Collection

bootloader:GRUB is the standard bootloader for Arch Linux, which is now maintained by GNU.

C library:glibc is "the library which defines the `system calls' and other basic facilities such as open, malloc, printf, exit..."[1]

binary utilities:binutils provides the "collection of programming tools for the manipulation of object code in various object file formats"[2].